Just bought first tractor and got ripped off

[Poorboy04]

Then I'm just passing the problem to someone else and putting someone else in the situation as me. My conscious won't allow me to do that.

 

[Pixguy]

Then I'm just passing the problem to someone else and putting someone else in the situation as me. My conscious won't allow me to do that.

Good for you.

 

[4570Man]

Then I'm just passing the problem to someone else and putting someone else in the situation as me. My conscious won't allow me to do that.

Not if they were aware of the problem. I could sleep easy at night having sold a tractor with a cracked case that the buyer knew was cracked.

 

[Sprinklerman]

A few years ago i had a Rolls Royce I picked up cheap and it had a cracked aluminum oil pan . I took it to the best welder in the area , when he was done you couldnt see the repair on the outside , and it was a beautiful weld on the inside .

 

[dbotos]

Can you confirm that it's cast iron (using a magnet)? If you want to get a better feel for exactly where it's leaking from, do a good wire brushing and degreasing of the entire "repair" area, then cover with chalk dust (chalk line chalk or make you own from sticks of chalk and sandpaper) or talcum powder. You can also make a paste with water or solvent (apply nice and thin) and blow some room temperature air on it to help it dry. Fill up with some more fluid and see where it starts affecting the chalk (like french fries in a paper bag).

I would be skeptical of an epoxy repair especially with forces from the loader going into the housing. Proper repair would involve taking everything out of the casting, thoroughly degreasing it (possibly including a bake to bring junk out of any porosity in the casting), drilling the ends of the crack (to prevent propagation), vee-ing out the crack for good penetration, and then welding or bazing with a cast-iron specific procedure (usually involves thorough preheat of the part and slooooow cooldown to avoid cracking). Lots of cast iron repairs over on weldingweb.com.

 

[Wild Bill the 2nd]

You are getting great advice here, situation sucks but you will find a way to make it work in the end.
If you decide not to do JB Weld the first thing you need to do is find out if it is cast iron or cast steel.

Next I will say that splitting a tractor is daunting but it is not terribly difficult, just time consuming. I split my TC35 to fix the shuttle shift and was nervous as he!! about it at first. I got an service manual (invaluable) and I paid an old New Holland mechanic to help me disassemble the transmission and inspect it. Then I re-assembled everything myself. Just to let you know, I'm mechanically minded, but I'm certainly no mechanic. In the end I am very happy that I did it, it was a good experience, everything worked, and I saved myself a few thousand dollars in labor to boot.

If you go that route talk to a lot of people, welders, mechanics, etc. If you are uncertain, see if you can get some after hours help.
Heck, PM myself or others here that have gone down the path that you end up going with. Plenty of people willing to help.

 

[jeff9366]

If you decide to do the work yourself, buy a digital camera, mount on a tripod, and take a picture each time you remove something.

Reverse view pictures when time to re-assemble.

 

[dbotos]

First do the magnet check to make sure it's ferrous. Then drill a shallow hole somewhere on the casting (has to be on the original casting - don't do it on the weld). Cast iron will be powdery/grainy when drilled, steel is more chippy/ribbony. It's most likely cast iron. Steel is much trickier to cast and the manufacturer would probably avoid it unless absolutely necessary. On a tractor it'd be simpler to make a slightly thicker/bulkier cast iron case than to do something more compact out of cast steel. Plus cast iron generally has better vibration damping characteristics.

 

[PILOON]

Another thought is that the weld might be OK structurally and merely leaking at a place where only flux was present, that being the case cleaning and JB could be all that is needed.
From the pics I see it looks to me that it was brazed by torch and rod method indicating that it is cast iron and that a leak was only discovered after re assembled.
It is kinda hard to pressure test for leaks in something like a sump or case, a vessel is easy but not that part.
Possible the leak only showed up many hours after it was re assembled after vibration shook loose a flux blocked pocket.
Also how bad is the leak? maybe it is manageable.
Heck if it is small you could always do like with a hot water tank leak, (leather washer and screw, but I'd prefer drill and tapping) the advantage here being that no cleaning would be necessary.
Castings being porous by nature are extremely hard to clean thoroughly enough for JB weld or epoxies to bond.
In fact lack of thorough cleaning prior to welding (brazing I really think here) is probably what is causing leakage.

 

[MossRoad]

The add said it was in good shape. Also I have texts of him saying that all the tractor needed was small cosmetic things and after I contacted him about the weld he pretty much said he knew about it but forget to tell me. I have all this in text messages.

Print all that stuff out and make several copies before those electronic records get accidentally purged or lost.